EPLAW Patent Blog, "The independence of the Boards of Appeal"
EPLAW Patent Blogrecently published an open letter of the European Patent Lawyers Association (EPLAW) to the Delegations of the Administrative Council (AC) of the EPO.EPLAW joined the chorus of patent professionals expressing their concerns about the temporary removal of a member of the Boards of Appeal (BoA) from office, as ordered by Mr Battistelli, President of the EPO, and confirmed by the AC. In addition to public discussions among patent professionals, further developments regarding the status of the BoA have taken place "behind the scenes".These are detailed in the article available here.
The article also reports on the public concern expressed in many letters and in numerous discussions about the recent actions and considers that:
"Co-operation between the AC and the EPO is in many situations the best choice. However, for the sake of safeguarding the independence of the BoA, simply avoiding independent and critical assessment of obvious flaws for the sake of the appearance of 'business as usual' is not good enough and is not in the long-term interest of the EPO users. [...]Transparency is of crucial importance and the AC should try to regain the lost confidence of the users of the EPO, e.g. by seeking external advice from judges, users and last but not least by members of the BoA before taking far-reaching decisions."